Candidates file for school board positions

Candidates for school boards across Roosevelt and Curry county filed for district positions Tuesday for Feb. 1 elections.

There are three school board openings in each of the county’s four school districts — Clovis, Texico, Grady and Melrose.

Board members serve four-year terms.

The Clovis Municipal Schools Board of Education had three positions up for election. Board member Rodney Muffley and Clovis resident Paul Cordova Jr. file for District 3. Clovis resident Charles Guthals filed for District 4, a seat currently held by Board President Mark Lansford. Terry Martin filed for his current seat in District 5. Both Guthals and Martin will run unopposed.

Lansford said after eight years on the board, he’s ready to move on.

“It’s been a real honor and privilege to sit on the board of education and represent my district and the community and the staff and the students in the larger sense,” Lansford said. “My focus ultimately was what is best for students.”

Lansford said the board and district administration are going in a sound direction.

“I’m comfortable leaving the board and the district in the shape it’s in,” he said.

Guthals, who owns a nursery in Clovis, spent about 25 years on the board about 15 years ago. He resigned to avoid claims of nepotism when his daughter-in-law was interested in working as a teacher in the district.

“I never did really think I was not on the board,” Guthals said. “You get to the point you think about ‘we’ when you about the schools instead of ‘they.’ I feel that much of a part.”

Guthals was the treasurer of the CMS Education Foundation and sat on a board that reviewed grant applications.

“I just like to be a part of education,” he said.

Grady Municipal Schools Board of Education had three positions up for election. Jerome Provencio and Allen Edwards filed for Position 1. Quentin Wood and Leona Powell filed for Position 2. Rodney Bone filed for Position 3.

Melrose Municipal School Board of Education has three positions up for elections. Board Member Kenneth Jacobs and Jubal Pierce filed for Position 1. Scott Dickerman filed for his seat in Position 2. Neal Delk filed for Mavin Estes’ seat in Position 3.

Texico Municipal Schools Board of Education had three positions up for elections. Cary Crist filed for his seat in Position 1. Harrison Hamer and Tim Foote filed for Foote’s seat in Position 2 and Jim Pena filed for his seat in Position 3.